Do you know the rhyme about ten green bottles hanging on a wall? If
the first bottle fell at ten past five and the others fell down at
5 minute intervals, what time would the last bottle fall down?

A Child Is Full of ...

Stage: 2 Short Challenge Level:

Andrew of
Farlingaye High School, Katherine and Claire (from where?) and
Sarah, Richard, Jack, Jan, Chris and Micheal all of Necton Middle
SchoolandAlison of Wymondham High
Schoolagreed that it is Wednesday's
child which as we know is full of WOE.

Soon Xing from
Singaporeexplained it as
follows:

On every leap year there is an extra day. Every year, the day of
the week increases by one day, but at a leap year the day of the
week increases by two days. The leap years from 1950 to 1974 were
1952, 1956, 1960, 1964, 1968 and 1972.

At this point Soon Xing gave a complicated
formula. All that is needed is to say that the day of the week must
have increased by 30 days (1 day for each of the 24 years, plus 1
day for each of the 6 leap years). Now 30 days is 4 weeks and 2
days so the day of the week has increased by 2 days which means
that she was born on a Wednesday.

The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the
NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to
embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice. More information on many of our other activities
can be found here.